Ryder
I stumbled back away from the punching bag, as Desiree's forceful punch landed with a loud slap against the leather. My eyes found hers and they were filled with hatred.
"Vivian," Desiree said bitterly. "I'm going to kill her."
"Whoa, whoa," I replied cautiously. My hands reached out to her trying to calm her down. "You can't just talk about that out in the open." I flicked my gaze nervously around the room, even though I knew no one else was in here and let them graze across the cameras set up in the corners of the room. My eyes landed on the black door and waited for a stampede of soldiers to come rushing through, but the door stayed close and the room stayed silent apart from Desiree's heavy breathing in front of me.
"She knows I'm going to kill her," Desiree said quietly, drawing my attention back to her. Her light blue eyes were wide and her body leaned towards me as if she was telling me a secret. "And if she doesn't think that then she's dumber than I thought she was."
Her eyes were serious. Desiree knew that she was going to kill Vivian, and I believed her. I wanted Vivian dead just as much as she did.
"What's your plan?" I whispered to her. I stepped closer to the bag, wrapping my arm around the side, leaning into it.
My face was the closest it's ever been to hers, and she drew in a deep, almost uncomfortable, breath at our sudden proximity. Desiree's hard gaze softened into a beautiful innocent expression.
"I don't really have a plan," She whispered back to me. Shyly, she glanced away from my eyes and down at the boxing gloves, covering her hands. "I guess I was just going to murder her the next time we were alone."
"And that's when the guards get called in and the show is over." I leaned a bit more into the punching bag as I tried to catch her gaze. Her eyes slowly lifted back up to me, and a small smile twitched at her lips, a sparkle shining in her frost colored eyes.
"Already happened once," She said quietly, her voice sounding more relaxed.
"And you're still here to tell about it?" My eyes widened in amazement at Desiree.
"I got tasered," She answered, blowing a stray away blonde hair from her face like nothing mattered.
The simple gesture of blowing the hair away, made me look at Desiree differently. Most of the girls, and men that come here are scared. I'll be the first one to admit that I will do anything to protect myself and my stolen little sister, even if that means respecting the authority of this twisted place we live in now.
But Desiree wasn't afraid. She was poisoned by a rage that inflicted her because of one single person, and nothing was going to stop her. It made her beautiful; it made her fierce. I could tell all of this from a single act, which normally wouldn't have seemed to matter, but right at this moment it did.
I had forgotten to speak, I was so engulfed watching her. I cleared my throat, hoping that she didn't notice my staring and remembered what we were talking about.
"Tasered?" I asked in disbelief. "And how was that?" I smiled at Desiree.
"It was no massage, I'll tell you that much." A small laugh sounded through her lips.
"Then my point is proven," I said talking quietly again. Leaning back into the conversation, I wasn't really putting any of my weight on the punching bag, I was more like holding it. "You're never really alone with Vivian. Guards are always in the other room, waiting for a snap of her fingers."
"Then we get her isolated," Desiree whispered, bringing her face closer to mine. We were only inches apart and I could feel her breath on my face. Not even the most high-tech cameras would have been able to hear what we were saying. I knew they were watching us; right now we would look like we were flirting, but it wasn't that hard to act like we were.
"But we wait," I told her. "We will think of something. Meanwhile, I'll train you."
Desiree suddenly looked angry at me. Stuffing one boxing glove between her legs, she pulled her arm free and took the other glove off with her hand. Throwing the glove to the ground, her eyes connected with mine, a crease forming between her thin brows.
"I don't need your training," Desiree said loudly, shattering the tense silence surround us. She didn't care who heard her. "I just got done running, and killing, and fearing for everything I had. Losing everything I had. I don't want to wait, I have nothing to lose anymore." Her voice grew quiet, her cheeks flushing red.
"Well I do," I said calmly, opening up a piece of myself to her. "Vivian has my sister being held prisoner in a camp in Wisconsin. Just one call.."
"And she's dead," Desiree finished my sentence, understanding, reminding her of something. "Vivian has the same hold on me too. She already had one person killed-"
Desiree's voice cut off and she looked away from me. I watched as tear rolled down her cheek, dripping off of her jaw. My hand reached out and grasped her shoulder, letting her know I was here.
Her chin began to quiver at my touch, and her body shivered as another tear rolled down her cheek. My hand wrapped tighter around her shoulder, balancing her as she swayed.
"I just can't believe he's dead," Desiree finally broke down, and I pulled her to me.
Wrapping my arms around her, I held her to me as her body rocked with every sob. I could feel her tears on my chest, my chin resting on the top of her head.
I let her cry in my arms, until her sobs became quiet gasps for air. I didn't say anything to her and she didn't say anything to me until the guard came through the door.
"Time to go Desiree," The guard dressed in the usual black said. He motioned for Desiree to follow him as he walked back out the door.
"Thank you," She said to me, wiping away the wet trails on her face. Blowing a stray blonde hair from her face, she turned over her shoulder and walked towards the exit.
"And when will you people learn that it's Desi, not Desiree," The fierce beautiful girl complained to the guard as the door shut behind her.
Cody
I stood gaping at the man in front of me, who had just saved my life. I was so shocked my voice came out as a whisper.
"Durbin?" I asked, even though I knew it was him.
"In the flesh boy," He replied, waving his hands in front of him as if he were a prize.
"How did you.. I though you.." I couldn't finish my thoughts.
"If there's one thing I learned when I was a kid, it was how to climb trees," Durbin said, his cocky smile on his face, just as I remembered.
"So you just climbed a tree and you survived?" I asked suspiciously. It was hard to believe that he could have escaped that massive herd of infected. "That's it?"
"Well no," Durbin said. "I guess you could say I ran for a while then got my ass up a tree before any of them could bite me. None of them even tried to climb after me. They just were looking up at me screaming that horrible scream they do, until they got bored and went to find someone else to eat."
"How anticlimactic," I said, rolling my eyes at him.
"What the hell are you talking about?" Durbin laughed. "It was exciting! I was just on my way back to the camp. Speaking of which," He pressed his fingers to the stubble on his chin. "Why aren't you there?"
"You might not want to go down there," I said, brushing my body of the fallen leaves and dirt that clung to my torn shirt. "I'm not sure what it's like now, but when I left it was a warzone."
"What happened?" Durbin asked, and surprisingly handed my gun back to me.
Grasping my weapon in my hands, I told Durbin the story of me getting infected, and Desi curing me. I skipped over the memory of my emotions swimming wildly through my body when I realized I was cured and Desi and I were both alive. I told him about how they took Desi away from me and sedated her, taking her in a helicopter to Vegas.
"They tried to kill you?" Durbin asked me in disbelief. "Where was Rich in all of this?"
"When the riot began, I couldn't find him anywhere in the crowds," As I spoke, I suddenly wondered how Vivian knew so much about Desi, before she'd even talked to her. Someone had to have been feeding her information.
"So we're heading to Vegas?" Durbin asked, excitement filling his face. "I used to go all the time with Josie, we almost got hitched the last time we went."
My eyes narrowed at Durbin, warning him not to speak about my mother. He held his hands up to his sides in surrender.
"Sorry," He said quietly. "Too soon?"
"Desi might have been able to forgive you but I never will," I said through my teeth, stepping closer to him even though I was weak. "And even though I didn't invite you, I do need your help. I'm starving, and I need water."
"We're close to the Last Stop General store, by the hunting grounds in the forest," Durbin said, stepping around me and motioning for me to follow him. "I used to come hunting here, and recognized a couple of trees they had spray-painted so that hunters didn't lose their way. If we keep walking we should be there in thirty minutes."
I followed in step with him, my feet almost dragging behind me. Durbin looked over his shoulder at me, then looked back ahead at the trees.
"Do you think you can make it that long?" Durbin asked hopefully. "I can carry you, if you need me to."
Somehow I managed to laugh, at the irony of Durbin wanting to carry me. "No thank you," I said, pushing myself as hard as I could. The one thing that kept me going was images of Desi's face flashing in my mind, and one hope that rang only her name.